South Carolina State University has been awarded a substantial federal grant of $1,985,515 to implement a groundbreaking virtual reality program toward reducing crashes involving commercial motor vehicles. The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as part of the 2024 High Priority-Commercial Motor Vehicle grant initiative.

The project is titled “A SMART Virtual Reality Awareness Program to Reduce Commercial Motor Vehicles Crashes.” It seeks to leverage innovative technology to foster safety awareness and education among commercial vehicle operators in South Carolina. SC State’s Institute of Business, Environment, Communications, and Transportation and the James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center will coordinate the project.

Project Leaders

Dr. Barbara Adams, executive director of BECT, will act as the project’s principal investigator. Dr. Judith Mwakalonge, a professor of transportation, and Dr. Stanley Ihekweazu, dean of the SC State College of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Transportation, will serve as co-principal investigators.

“Commercial truck accidents are common in South Carolina, and the primary contributing factors are driver-related behavior related to speeding, driver fatigue, and distracted driving,” Adams said. “Virtual reality is an innovative technology that is revolutionizing training across many sectors. Using it in transportation training will enable South Carolina drivers to experience realistic situations and refine their responses and actions without the risk of harm to others.”

The project outlines six critical tasks to achieve its objectives. Those include synthesizing causes and costs associated with CMV crashes, ranking these causes, and developing virtual reality scenarios based on real-world incidents. A virtual reality lab will also be developed and implemented for the SMART virtual reality awareness and training program. 

“The U.S. Department of Transportation is an essential partner for SC State as we grow the James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center and its research mission,” said SC State President Alexander Conyers. “We know the importance of using the newest and best technology in our research endeavors, and virtual reality is the perfect example of how to elevate our processes.”

This virtual reality project adds to SC State’s growing portfolio of federally funded transportation initiatives. In 2023, the university joined a national consortium led by Clemson University to investigate cybersecurity vulnerabilities within transportation systems, supported by a significant five-year USDOT grant. Additionally, in 2022, SC State researchers collaborated on a $1.3 million project that utilized artificial intelligence to mitigate CMV crashes, particularly in highway work zones.